Earnings Reports for July 11

January 6, 2006

Paper Giant’s Profits Triple

International Paper Co., the world’s biggest paper and forest products company, today said its fiscal second-quarter net income more than tripled on higher pulp and paper prices and cost savings from
recent mergers, beating analysts’ expectations.

Profits in the three months ended June 30 rose to $315
million, or 75 cents per diluted share excluding a $45 million
charge after tax on facility closure and severance reserves
following its takeover of Champion International. This compared
to profits of $99 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-ago
quarter excluding extraordinary items. Revenues in the latest
period rose about 12 percent to $6.8 billion from $6.0 billion
in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial had forecast
earnings of 74 cents per share in the latest quarter.

The company, which this spring agreed to acquire Champion
International for $7.3 billion in cash and stock, has benefited
from higher pulp prices and higher container prices in the
quarter, analyst Mark Wilde of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. “For
IP, the big horse is paper, and in this quarter, the big horse
will be better than last quarter,” he said before the
announcement.

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Yahoo! Reports Sharp Rise in Earnings

Internet media giant Yahoo! Inc reported unexpectedly sharp increases in
second-quarter earnings and revenues as well as overall traffic
to its Web properties.
The company said its pro forma net income, excluding certain
unusual items, totalled $74 million or 12 cents per diluted
share in the second quarter, compared with $27.1 million or 5 cents cents per diluted share in the year-ago period.
The latest
earnings exceeded the consensus analyst forecast for a profit of
10 cents per share.

Yahoo also said that sales grew to $270.1 million from
$128.6 million the year before, while page views rose to an
average 680 million per day in June, up from 625 million in
March.

“The unrivaled global distribution platform we have built
for advertisers, merchants, content and service providers along
with the diversified set of revenue streams we have created,
positions us well to continue our leadership in the future,” Chairman Tim Koogle said.

The company said it now has 156 million unique users
worldwide, including 20 million in Japan.

Yahoo shares rallied in after-hours trading after the earnings were released.

The stock had lost ground in recent days amid
concerns that its earnings would reflect a sharp slowdown in its
rate of growth, or that its revenues would reveal too strong a
dependence on advertising from dot-com companies.

Yahoo did not provide much detail on the portion of its
revenue that had come from advertising on its site.